Northamptonshire Make a Difference awards winners revealed

A three-year-old girl was one of the winners in this year's BBC Radio Northampton Make a Difference Awards 2023.

The winners were announced at a glittering ceremony in Northampton's Guildhall.

The event had to be relocated after the original venue, the Royal and Derngate, was found to have collapse-prone concrete.

The awards honoured winners from gardeners to litter-pickers.

Margot Jones-Billington, from Denton, who collected the accolade for bravery, was diagnosed with a bleed on the brain at just 20 months old and was not expected to survive.

Half of her skull was removed and she spent months in hospital.

She has had to learn to walk, talk, swallow and communicate all over again, but manages to keep on smiling.

Her mother Laura said: "It's really important for people to understand how much harder everyday things are for her - even just picking up something with her hand - she has to work so much harder to do it."

Lindsey Carman did not let her own illness stop her going the extra mile to win the Fundraiser award.

She trained as a nurse and works at Northampton General Hospital.

Nine years ago, she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer which has no cure, but threw herself into raising money and collected over £250,000 towards a chemotherapy suite at Northampton General.

She said: "I can use the fact that I've got cancer to be able to fundraise. I know that having it will make some people think 'If she's doing that, I can't really say 'no' to her!'"

The Together Award, which celebrates groups of people who come together to achieve great things, went to Off the Streets NN.

It has provided 159 bleed kits and training to go with them, so anyone with a knife wound can get immediate treatment.

Naomi Richardson from Off the Streets NN said its work "shows how important this topic is to people".

She added: "The sad thing is, people don't listen until happens, until it's too late sometimes."

BBC Make a Difference was set up at the start of the first lockdown in March 2020 to show appreciation for people helping to make life better for others.

BBC Radio Northampton's executive editor Helen Grimes said: "BBC Radio Northampton tells the amazing stories of the incredible people in our community every day, so it's really nice to take a moment to say thank you and well done to all our nominees and winners."

The full list of award-winners is:

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